Law 18 - Common Sense (originally appeared 8-02)
Don't you hate it when you sit down for a nice family dinner (if you don't remember those then watch some Leave it to Beaver reruns), and you find yourself constantly interrupted with telemarketers? Now imagine yourself on the soccer pitch with those same telemarketers calling you. This is the effect that too zealous a whistle can have on the game. Luckily, FIFA recognizes that common sense must prevail. For this reason the Laws of the Game are particularly sparse; only 29 pages in length."Common Sense" is the so-called Law 18, which goes along with the printed Laws 1-17. In older versions of the Laws of the Game, this showed up as "in the opinion of the referee". This has been replaced in recent years with the caution against stopping play for "trifling" offenses, which "produce bad feeling and loss of temper;and spoil the pleasure